check
open positions
Arrow All posts

Discovering the Art of Level Design Through #Blocktober

March 5, 2025

Discovering the Art of Level Design Through #Blocktober
Since 2017, Level Designers worldwide have participated in a yearly tradition of sharing footage of their work-in-progress levels, often contrasting it to the final version, during the entire month of October.



Those early designs are called blockouts — and thus #blocktober was born!




A conversation with Miles Tost, our Lead Level Designer who worked on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, sparked the idea to participate as a studio and the cross-team project kicked off in the summer of 2024.


The goal of this project can be split into three main pillars:

  1. Promoting the work of our talented Level Designers.
  2. Presenting our community with a transparent look behind the game development curtain.
  3. Highlighting the great levels players can discover when diving into our most-recent release, Phantom Liberty.




As usual with these cross-team projects, many people contributed to the full version that you see in its full glory on social media. Shout out to our Copywriters who helped our Level Designers put their thoughts to digital paper, and our Illustrators who created the final graphical assets from the initial screenshots, which were polished by the Screenshot team.




The five weekly posts each covered one specific area or level of Phantom Liberty. Two images from the blockout stage of a level were contrasted side by side with two images from the same perspective taken from the final game.




Accompanying each post, Level Designers provided quotes with insightful comments into the blockout and creation process, offering you a chance to learn more about how the memorable environments of Phantom Liberty came to be!




Check out the five separate articles and see the incredible work our team did for #blocktober for yourself:




Thanks for reading!
What brought you to this article today?

  • Learning about careers

  • Exploring games

  • Just curious!

Thanks for your response!

Something went wrong, please try again later

Author: Ryan Schou | Community Manager
Share on:
Job Openings in Warsaw Hub Job Openings in Boston Hub

Related articles

Working

Working With Epic to Debut The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo at Unreal Fest

Last week we unveiled The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo at Unreal Fest 2025 — a showcase of some of the cutting-edge technology powering The Wit...

June 13, 2025

Bringing

Bringing the Joy at Nintendo Switch 2 Experience Events

For the last two months we’ve been flying around the world to take part in Nintendo Switch™ 2 Experience events, introducing Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate ...

June 2, 2025

Prime

Prime Ministers, Prank Calls, and Panic: Inside CD PROJEKT RED Upon The Witcher 3's Launch

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may seem like an obvious hit today, but the developers behind it weren’t always so sure. Hear our stories from launch as we c...

May 30, 2025

AnsweRED PODCAST

Join hosts Paweł Burza and Sebastian Kalemba as they dive into various game development topics with the help of guests from CD PROJEKT RED, Promised Land Art Festival, and the wider industry. This podcast is the perfect listen for anyone interested in game dev; it offers a unique platform to gain valuable insight and knowledge directly from our experts. Tune in today!